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The Many Faces of Chinese Names

6 days ago
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8 minutes

Why do Chinese people choose English names?
Every Chinese person I have met has had an English name. Whether they were living in Taiwan, living in the United States, or on a cruise ship, each one of them has introduced themselves by their English name. They would only tell me their Chinese name when I asked. I would try to say it, and would sometimes get it correct, but they seemed to want me to use their English name.
I think this is partly because the tones are so important in Chinese. English speakers who are not fluent in Chinese almost always mangle Chinese names. This may not seem like a big deal to English speakers, whose names are not so closely linked with meanings. English speaking parents may look at meanings when they choose a name, but even names that are clearly based on words are not thought of as more than names most of the time. And if they are pronounced with one accent or another, it doesn’t change the meaning of the name.
The typical personal name for a Chinese person is actual words, chosen for their particular meanings. If they are said with wrong tones, their meaning is at best wiped out and at worst turned into something undesirable. It is very important to them than you say their names correctly. Exactly which character is used is also important, because this is where the very specific meaning of the name comes from.
Turning English language names into Chinese names
Sometimes English names are translated into Chinese characters and sounds to communicate them to Chinese speakers. When this is done, there is usually an att